West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

RCA;
2009

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What did Kasabian do that was so bad? I realize that trying to play the sympathy card is pretty futile when that cover is staring back at you, but Kasabian have seemed like the sort of group whose punishment has been disproportionate to their musical crimes. Sure, Americans have become conditioned to cast a wary eye towards the vast majority of NME-hyped bands from across the pond, and the UK pubs seem to hype them simply for their ability to evoke a chemically altered 90s nostalgia-- you know, the kind of stuff that never happens here...

Trying to hold Kasabian to the standards, or at least the sensibilities, of our more recent indie faves is like wondering why beer commercials never license, I dunno, Sunn O))). As it is, West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum can be pretty enjoyable when operating from its position of strength, completely from the neck down. If you just can't get enough distorted bass, then by the time "Fast Fuse" comes hurtling down the pike, you might be ready to toss this in your top 10. Or you might like it about as much as the Music's last record. Either way, there's almost a hip-hop approach to Kasabian's better songs here-- as long as those hydraulic riffs take up as much space as the chunky breakbeats, nearly anything sounds good over it. Which really helps when you're dealing with a guy like Tom Meighan, whose lyricism can be most kindly described as "an afterthought." Songs called "Underdog" and "Where Did All the Love Go?" both manage to slip in references to bar fighting, and the latter implores the listener to steal a hobo's wine. I would joke about how this stuff will never go out of style as long as EA keeps making soccer games, but "Fast Fuse" actually is on "FIFA 09".

When taking advantage of the opportunity to be as dumb as they need/want to be, West Ryder succeeds, which is another way of saying acoustic guitars have absolutely no reason to be involved. Okay, maybe that's going a bit overboard; after all, even XTRMNTR had slow songs on it. Thing is, those songs were actually slow and provided something resembling contrast, but Meighan attacks with the same cant throughout. During West Ryder's incomprehensibly misguided midsection and final quarter, Kasabian lumber through a rash of poky Kinks pastiches as if the Kooks don't already have a monopoly on that front, and Meighan's inability to show range trickles down to the rest of the group.

As long as retro-obsessed bands make third albums, you're going to have the use of Panda Express-authentic touches of Oriental drone ("Take Aim"). As long as Screamadelica is considered a (rightful) classic, you're going to get lesser attempts at "I'm Comin' Down", and here they're called "Ladies & Gentlemen (Roll the Dice)", "Fire", and "Happiness". And as long as bands have the ability to do stuff like this, they'll get someone like Rosario Dawson for a misguided and interminably long Bonnie & Clyde roleplay ("West Ryder Silver Bullet"). These are all things hundreds of bands do far better than Kasabian, still stuck in a somewhat uncomfortable position of being very good at a style of electro-based rock that's considered pretty unfashionable, right or wrong.